Cisco Delivers Next Wave of Unified Computing Innovation to Power Applications at Every Scale

SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/04/14 -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today introduced significant innovations to its Unified Computing System (UCS) business, delivering a broader and more powerful portfolio of technologies to help customers capitalize on rapidly changing landscapes in business and IT.

Built on the architectural foundation, partnerships, and rapid customer adoption of UCS, Cisco's expanded portfolio addresses new market segments and use cases with the introduction of Cisco UCS M-Series Modular Servers for cloud-scale applications, and Cisco UCS Mini for small-scale and enterprise-edge environments.

Additionally, an expansion of the current UCS portfolio brings new levels of power and scalability for a wide range of data center workloads by unveiling new fourth-generation UCS Rack and Blade Servers for application performance, and new UCS Director solutions to manage Big Data infrastructure workloads.

"Rapid changes in the way applications are architected and delivered are being driven by the demands of Big Data, the Internet of Everything, mobility, video and cloud," said Paul Perez, vice president and general manager, Cisco UCS. "We are in a new world where data sets and application scale are rapidly growing, and the opportunities for businesses to capitalize on the deeper intelligence and faster decisions they afford are really taking off. With this expanded portfolio, Cisco is delivering the largest wave of computing innovation since the original introduction of UCS -- we are continually challenging and evolving how data center infrastructure should be architected and managed."

Cisco's Unified Computing innovation extends the company's strategy of application-centric data center infrastructure, an approach designed to future-proof and create advantage for customers amid continuous change in IT and business. The new technology innovations include:

Cloud-Scale Computing New Cisco UCS M-Series Modular Servers deliver breakthrough levels of operational efficiency for cloud service providers and enterprise customers who increasingly rely on scale-out application architectures. With exclusive Cisco System Link Technology, the UCS M-Series leapfrogs conventional designs, delivering the industry's first true disaggregated server architecture for leaner Cloud-scale infrastructure. This optimized approach can eliminate up to 95% of the system components duplicated in a traditional server design, which combined with the simplicity of UCS Management, can deliver up to 36% combined TCO savings(2).

Edge-Scale ComputingUnified Computing innovation is now optimized for remote sites, branch offices, and small IT environments with the introduction of Cisco UCS Mini. This all-in-one solution delivers servers, storage and networking in a compact form factor that is easy to deploy and operate, bringing the benefits of UCS simplicity and IT automation to a new segment of customers and up to a 36% advantage in total cost of ownership compared to traditional rack servers.(3) For customers operating large numbers of remote sites or branch offices, UCS systems management enables operations and policy control of distributed computing at a massive scale.

Data-Intensive Computing and Core Data Center ApplicationsNew Fourth-generation UCS Servers and UCS Director products deliver power and control to accelerate intensive data analytics and a wide range of applications for improved business outcomes, including:

UCS Director Express for Big Data provides a single touch solution that automates deployment of Hadoop and provides a single management pane across both physical infrastructure and Hadoop software. It is integrated with major open-source distributions to ensure consistent and repeatable Hadoop UCS cluster configuration, relieving customers from manual operations.

According to a recent report by IDC, Cisco has achieved the ranking of No. 1 provider of x86 blade servers in the Americas, measured by revenue market share.(1) Cisco also demonstrated the highest industry growth in the total worldwide server market according to the IDC report, with 39% revenue growth on a cumulative four quarter basis ending in calendar Q1 of 2014, a period where other vendors in the top five posted flat or declining results.

Watch the Cisco UCS Launch Event BroadcastOn September 4 at 10:30 a.m. EST, during a launch event in New York City, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior will headline a UCS Launch event, formally unveiling the new UCS portfolio expansion and Cisco's new operating model for the Internet of Everything. Warrior will be joined onstage by Cisco UCS GM Paul Perez and Major League Baseball Advanced Media CTO Joe Inzerillo, who will describe the role Cisco UCS has played in transforming their business into a profit center. The UCS Launch Event Broadcast can be viewed by registering here.

About Cisco UCSCisco UCS, which unifies computing, networking, solid-state application acceleration technology and systems management into a single integrated architecture, has received strong support from customers since entering the server market five years ago. As of the end of FY14, Cisco UCS® has attracted over 36,500 customers, which is responsible for 30% year-over-year growth. Cisco's channel partners are fueling this rapid growth by driving 80% of all Cisco UCS sales, allowing these partners to capture burgeoning private and hybrid cloud opportunities.

About Cisco Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.